Sigh-Fi

The pedals still exist, but they have been put to the metal

I came here just to mention turbo kid. Fuckin awesome flick.

I loved Turbo Kid. Its such a great post-apocalypse film. But I couldn't help but wonder how they kept the bicycle chains lubricated.

I love the soundtrack in this movie, especially during the bike chase scene!

Zombie stories always have cars. You think maintaining cars is easier? At least most bikes have pretty standard parts.

Those degrade over time, though. After ten years, you'd have trouble keeping your bike running.

Couldn't possibly be as dumb as after the flash-forward in The Walking Dead where the world had run out of usable gasoline, so the survivors' solution was to CUT THE ROOFS OFF OF THE CARS and draw them by horses. Like, you geniuses are going to get rid of the part that's useful for defense, but not the weight of the engine? Why not just build a fucking actual wagon?

I mean, compared to what? Being on foot? Pretty sure the bike is going to be harder to hit than a walker or runner. Also more efficient per mile, so less stopping. I'm assuming that we don't have petroleum products that are necessary to use the automobiles that still exist, oil refineries don't really run themselves.

specifically mountain bikes.

• They use standard parts that you can find in an any abandoned bike store or department store

"Standard" in that there are multiple incompatible "standards" for wheels, hubs, chains, cranks, chainrings, shifters, derailleurs, derailleur hangers, brake mounts, brake fluid, handlebars, seat posts and probably 50 other things I've forgotten.

And department store bikes ignore most of those standards and do whatever is cheap.

• Zombies are also on bikes

No worries with blocked roads either. Can just squeeze through most gaps. In the worst case scenario just lift the bike over any cars.

You won’t run out of fuel

depends on the availability of food vs fuel, which is easier to acquire on the way so you don't spend too much fuel just carrying required fuel.

If you've ever been to Mexico, one of the most common things you'll see is a shop with Vulcanizadora in big letters by the side of the highway. They're tire repair places that use the vulcanization process to cheaply repair tires.

You can also use the process in reverse to generate useful rubber from a used tire. In the modern world with global supply chains etc. most tire "recycling" is just burning the tires for energy. But, if it were important to get the rubber out because the post-apocalyptic world is short of rubber, that's entirely possible. It wouldn't be cheap or easy, and you wouldn't get anywhere near 100% of the rubber back. But, in a post-apocalyptic world there are bound to be mountains of used tires that you could feed into the process to get some new, fresh rubber.

I suppose you could probably create wooden wheels with hide leather treads.

Gotta fish them out of the canals first though.

It's a high risk, high reward travel in a zombie apocalypse.

You're body is exposed to grabby biteys, it's quite easy to take a tumble (roads won't be well maintained, zombies won't move out of the way), you are limited by your health (injury and exhaustion), and your carry capacity/content is limited (can't carry a long or heavy thing easily)

However, as you said, quieter than most other modes of transport, much faster and more energy efficient than foot, don't have to worry about fuel (other than your bodies).

I think I'd use them, but I've assed off enough times downhill mountain biking and a few times in town (bus cutting blind corner, people being careless getting out of cars) that I'd be very wary

In post-apocalyptic films? I'd rather say the writers are too carbrained.